In May 2021, we lost our sweet kitty Willow, and I was having a hard time with my grief. Due to COVID protocols, the emergency vet wouldn't let my husband be in the room with her when she was released from this life, and it haunted me (still does) that she was surrounded by strangers during her last moments.
I sent the last letter to my best friend Lissa on 4/24/22. I had been talking with her about Willow, and this is what I wrote in that last letter. Little did I know, less than a year later, it would be pertinent to my grief over losing my friend.
I think I have turned the corner a bit regarding my grief over Willow. It really did help me to read that “Breakfast with Seneca” book as it gave me a different perspective about life. I was particularly pole-axed by Seneca's saying to the woman who had lost her son and couldn't shake her grief, “You hug and hold onto your grief, keeping it alive in place of your son.” I'm actually not sad THAT she died – I'm more upset HOW she died. But even so, after reading that book, I realized that I kept focusing on the last day of her life, rather than remembering the 16 years we had with her. So yeah, I still miss her and I'm still sad that she's gone – but it's helped to temper that emotion with thoughts of the funny or sweet times we had with her.
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